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Jul 14, 2014 | 10:06 AM

#16

HT32BSX115

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Joined: Feb 2005

Posts: 3,952

Likes: 117

From: Upper Left Coast

Quote:

Originally Posted by dannyboy950

Glad you got it going. Good job.

Off topic but this may be up yer alley. I got a call the other day about looking at a diesel powered air plane.
I knew nothing about it so I had to decline. Do they even make a diesel powered air plane?

There was a German company that did produce a couple of diesel airplanes. Their engine is a well modified (4cyl) Benz engine. A lot of them are flying. They had a problem with the engine supplier and I think it's still not fixed.

Diesel airplanes are not really new though.....

First Flight of the Packard-Diesel Powered Aircraft

It's really the "wave" of the future (from the past) .

Teledyne-Continental actually (recently ~2000~) did develop a 4 cyl liquid cooled flat-opposed 2-stroke turbo & supercharged engine.

It was designed to operate at 2200 RPM at take-off, climb and cruise power settings using a constant speed prop: Welcome to Continental Motors

I don't think they've done anything with it in several years. The latest thing with TCM is their development of the SMA 4 cyl (4-stroke) aircooled 230hp engine originally designed by SMA Continental Unveils a Diesel Project (corrected) - AVweb flash Article

This is now: New Six-Cylinder Diesel From Continental To Debut At AirVenture - AVweb flash Article

http://www.avweb.com/videos/Video-Pi...o222055-1.html

And of course, Lycoming: http://www.avweb.com/avwebflash/news...s221664-1.html

Diesel fuel STILL has the highest energy density (BTU/LB, Cal/kg etc) of any fuel available for aircraft. (with Kero [Jet-A,JP-5,8] a close second)

Leaded Avgas is essentially a "Banned" fuel. (banned in the late 70's with an exemption of course) "They" still want to replace it with "something" but the alternative is very expensive. (when I started flying my airplane, gas was about $0.80/gal.....at 10gal/hr, it cost me around $8/hr to fly it. Now with Avgas at anywhere from $6-7/gal, it costs around $60-70.hr........I don't know how the "kid" at the airport will learn to fly nowadays!

Since the Govt, taxes and other regulatory stuff has essentially killed General Aviation, manufacturers don't really want to spend any money developing new engines that no one will buy.

Howdy Sean!